---

Made it it back in one piece, but the fishing was a disaster. A big storm moved in with 30 mpr wind.

The first night we ended up about 50miles south of sitka and 20 miles out in the Gulf of Alaska. The seas are 6 ft and we pick a big kelp ball on the lift side stabilizer pulling it back in to the heavy line. ( the heavy is 1/8th steel cable we had it down 20 fathoms with a 60lb lead ball on it ) We had to take the boat out of gear so we could pull it in and cut it off. With the hight seas all the fishing gear started tangling up. We had 4 lines out to 20 fathoms, each line had 7 hooks. By the time we got all the kelp cut off 3 of the 5 strands on the heavy line was broke off. We pulled it in and all the fishin lines was tangled up. Then we pulled up the bag line we had a 30lb lead ball on it, and all its lines was tangled.

We go over to the right side of the boat and see the stabilizer had rapped around and around the heavy on that side. The only way to fix it was to pull the stabilizer and take it off its chain and unwrap it off the heavy. Now all this is not fun with the wind and 6ft sea. The stabilizer and the heavy free from each other. All the fish lines on them was a mess. We put the stabilizer back on its chain and we are on our way. 

Now its 6 pm time to find a place to anchor. that means we must go through the rocks. The Sea Bear has the state of the art electronics. It has a GPS that runs on a lap top. But old Bill forgets to look at it. Old Bill is a great story teller . But he can t talk and run the boat at the same. You got to stand next to him and tell him, ok Bill a little to the right, now a little to the lift. then its look out for that rock and over there is one just under the water. Well we got through this okay and set the halibut lines and went farther back in to drop the hook. Bill cooked a good supper and then off to bed.

The next day we are up at 7am. Bill cooked a nice breakfast. and we are off to pull the 2 halibut lines, no halibut. Now its back through the rocks in to the gulf. Out in the gulf its bad. The wind was 30mpr. and a 10 foot waves. I had to keep an eye on Bill that he didnt get the boat side ways in the trough. If he did it could roll the boat over. The wave was pushing us into the rocks. I had a hard time getting Bill to steer north west. So now we are getting in a box, rocks on the right and rock dead ahead, only one thing to do, turn around and tac back to the south west. That calls for a 90dg turn in the trough. We tacked back for hour and a half before we made a turn back to the northwest by west. By noon we was in a channel out of the waves with just the wind.

We put out 1 halibut line and tried to fish. but the wind was blowing to hard so we went in a bay and dropped the hook for the night. It was supper and a movie The next day we pulled the halibut line and we had 40lber. I ran the boat the rest of the time. We fished our way back to town. We didnt have much, 1 halibut and 20 salmons.

Well now, wait a minute, these things ain’t no panfish …… looks like bass and a channel catfish.

              

Well, Troy and his Uncle Dan went down to the local hole and got …….. BLACK CRAPPIES! You don’t see them much anymore.

Anyway, they got a nice little mess, eight or so, half of them about 13””. Looks like they might have got wet doing it but what the heck – when you’re catching nice panfish so what!

And I’ll keep eating them as long as they keep bringing  them in.